Posted By Walter Olson On May 11, 2012 @ 3:38 pm In Government and Politics,Regulatory Studies

As Tad has noted [1], Thumbtack.com in cooperation with the excellent Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City has produced this attractive, clickable map [2] of the 50 states displaying the results of a survey of small-business friendliness. Its worth checking out your states standing, as well as that of states with which it competes for new business. To a large extent the findings come in just about where one would expect:

California plus the Northeast (aside from New Hampshire) are the most unfriendly overall. Add in the trio of Midwest industrial states (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio) plus Washington and Hawaii and you get the full list of seriously unfriendly states, with D+ or worse grades. The list of best states also includes few surprises: Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, Virginia and several other Southern states. Virginia (grade of A) far outdistances Maryland (C-), notwithstanding the views of Washington Post business writers who often chide the Old Dominion for not emulating the economic policies of its neighbor to the north. Other states, even in the Northeast, tend to do OK in one or two areasNew Jersey and Vermont avoid piling costs onto new hiring, Connecticut and Illinois are not entirely hopeless on zoning, and so forth. The exception is California: its awful on everything.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.